Archive for the ‘iRespect the Body – Adults’ Category

When I was in high school I really wanted to get a tattoo and a body piercing. So, during high school I got a body piercing (in my bellybutton). Shortly after I graduated from high school I got a tattoo. Neither action was well thought-out, but more of a spur of the moment thing. In fact, I’m grateful that the man who did my tattoo wouldn’t do what I originally wanted. He told me to go home and really think about it until I knew what I wanted and where I wanted it. If he would have done whatever I wanted at that moment, I would be even more regretful at this point. So, I ended up getting something I thought I would want for the rest of my life on my ankle. Now, about five years after I got my tattoo I have a scar where my body piercing was and a tattoo that I wish I didn’t have.

I got a navel piercing and tattoo to be different and cool. After a while of having both, I didn’t care much about showing them off. It really surprised me in a way when people would point to me and ask me about my tattoo. It started to annoy me that when certain people noticed my body piercing or tattoo, I suddenly had become more cool in their eyes. I felt like they liked me more, only after they had found out that I was the type of person who would have a body piercing or tattoo.

Shortly after I got my tattoo, I realized that a lot more people from many different groups of society were getting body piercings and tattoos. The trend of tattoos and body piercings was becoming popular among more and more people regardless of what “group” they were in (i.e. the “rebellious” crowd, as well as the more average straight-laced group of people).

After a few years I got sick of my body piercing because so many other people were doing the same thing. Then it came down to deciding whether I wanted metal or a scar. I chose the scar.

Here’s why:

After I was touched by the Lord I was told by a friend that body piercing and tattoos were wrong because the Bible said so. I was immediately defensive and confused. I wanted to follow the Lord and do what was right in His eyes. So, while I was with my friend one time we decided to look it up in our NIV Bibles for ourselves. We found Leviticus 19:28: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.”

We couldn’t find anything that directly said you should not pierce your body. In fact, I was surprised to see in certain parts of Scripture that women wore nose rings in the Old Testament. For instance, Abraham’s servant gave Rebekah a nose ring as a gift when he knew he had found the right wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:34-51 NIV). I believe, however, that nose rings were common in their culture, just as common as earrings have been in American culture for a long time. Therefore, there is not the same reasons behind Rebekah wearing a nose ring as someone in America might have today. It would be as simple as her being given earrings today.

I decided to pray about whether it was right for me to have a body piercing and tattoo. During the time I was praying and seeking God about this the Lord led me to Scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

I was also convicted by 1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”

I felt that I had harmed my body by tattooing it and piercing it. I passed out when I got my body pierced and came close to passing out when I got my tattoo. Basically, I went through a lot of pain to look cool. I felt that it was wrong for me to have pierced and tattooed my body, especially because of the reasons behind both–vanity and pride. Between vanity and pride and harming my body that the Lord had created I knew that I had sinned. Now I can see that I was not honoring God with my body by piercing it and putting a permanent mark on it. Although I was able to remove my piercing, my tattoo is not something that I can just wash away. It is on my leg to stay.

I know the Lord has forgiven me. His grace and love are so amazing. I was living a sinful, ungodly life and then I found the Lord. Jesus died for us all and God raised Him from the dead so that our sins can be forgiven and that we may be cleansed of our iniquities. Now, we can enter into an amazing love relationship with Him. God did this all through Jesus! The point of this testimony is to share how I was convicted of sin in my life. It doesn’t matter what the sin was. We all need to repent and follow the Lord. If we love Him, we will obey Him.

John 14:15 NIV: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

1 John 5:3-5 NIV: “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Human brain generates more electric impulses in a day than all telephones of the world combined.

The loss of vision caused by exposure to bright light is called snow blindness.

Total weight of bacteria living in the human body is 4.4lbs.

Human brain produces 100,000 chemical reactions per second.

Babies are born without kneecaps, which form only at the age of 2 to 6.

The area of human lungs’ surface is equal to that of a tennis court.

At birth, a baby’s brain contains 14 billion cells, and this number does not increase till death. On the contrary, after the age of 25 it decreases by 100,000 cells per day. Reading a page of text in a minute kills approximately 70 cells. After the age of 40, the brain degradation is accelerated, and after 50, neurons shrink and brain volume reduces.

The human small intestines are 8.5 feet long during life. After death, when the muscles of the bowel walls relax, it may reach over 19 feet.

An average human has approximately 2 million perspiratory glands. An average adult person loses 540 calories with a liter of sweat. Men perspire 40% more than women.

The right lung holds more air than the left one.

An adult person makes approximately 23,000 breaths a day.

In a lifetime, the female body produces 7 million egg cells.

The human eye is capable of differentiating 10,000,000 hues.

There are approximately 40,000 bacteria in the human mouth.

It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

The human spine contains 33 to 34 spinal bones.

Women blink twice as often as men.

The smallest cells in the male body are sperm cells.

The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.

There are approximately 2,000 taste buds in the human body.

Babies are born with approximately 300 bones, and adults have only 206 bones.

Human body contains enough fat to produce seven pieces of soap.

Nerve impulses in the human body travel with the speed of approximately 90 meters a second.

MANY PEOPLE TODAY EQUATE “SPIRITUALITY” with one’s personal inner life. Spiritual seekers are advised to “listen to their heart” to find peace and clarity, often without any reference to God – or at least to the God revealed in the Scriptures – or to a community such as the Church. Their approach is more individual rather than communal, more mind-centered than encompassing one’s entire being, and often more concerned with self-help than with living in union with God.

As Eastern Christians we stand in a tradition that first of all understands spirituality as mankind’s relationship to God through the operation of the Holy Spirit. At its root this relationship is based on an event which joins the material and the spiritual: the Incarnation of Christ. The Word of God took flesh, became human in order to unite us with God. Because He is truly and perfectly man, the risen Christ is now glorified in His body, seated at the right hand of the Father.

THE BODY IN EASTERN THOUGHT
The body as well as the spirit is important in Christian life. As St Paul says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6: 19-20). We are not meant to ignore or belittle the body because we are Christians. The body is not an enemy but a partner and collaborator with the soul in the work of our sanctification. The body, as well as the spirit, is meant to be transfigured in Christ and so we are called to glorify God in it.

PURIFYING THE BODY
The first way in which we glorify God in the body is by accepting and affirming its freedom from the control of sin and death. United to Christ in baptism, we have already been given a share in that freedom, which will be completely realized in the life of the world to come. As long as we are in this life, however, we must work along with Christ-in-us to maintain the body’s freedom from the influence of sin.

And so one way in which we glorify God in the body is by the Church’s ascetic tradition, which focuses on freeing the mind and the heart from attachment to the things of the senses. Christian asceticism is not anti-physical but seeks to liberate the body from the lure of the sensual so that the physical may be sanctified.

The Church Fathers considered that the most basic ascetic practices focus on controlling the passions or cravings of the body for food and drink and for sexual release. This is not because they are our greatest inner enemies – pride and vanity have that dubious distinction – but because it is easier to conquer our physical cravings than our spiritual impulses. This is why St Paul, in 1 Corinthians, singles out the power of gluttony and lust as the enemy’s first line of attack on the believer. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (v.15). How can you surrender to the first assault the enemy mounts against you? If we cannot put aside fatty foods on Wednesdays and Fridays, much less during the Fasts, how can we even begin to deal with things like spiritual laziness (sloth) or pride that afflict us in our innermost hearts?

WORSHIPPING IN THE BODY
We live our life in Christ in our bodies as well as in our spirits and so the Eastern Churches have insisted that the body join the spirit in worshipping the One who created us as both physical and spiritual. We bow, we kneel, we make the sign of the cross, we prostrate, we kiss, we eat and we drink. We glorify God in the body by entering body, soul and spirit in the worship of the Church.

One way we glorify God in our bodies at worship is by standing for prayer. In some churches people are directed to stand or sit at different times during the service. Sitting, however, is the stance taken by an audience rather than a participant, whether it be at the theater or at worship. Worshippers are an “audience” during readings or a sermon; during prayers and litanies they are participants and more fittingly stand rather than sit.

Two bodily gestures in Eastern worship not common in the churches of the West are the metany and the prostration. In the metany we make the sign of the cross and bow from the waist, extending our right hand until our fingers touch the ground. In the prostration we kneel on both knees and bow until our forehead touches the ground. Both gestures indicate our complete submission to the King of all.

Making metanies and prostrations requires a certain amount of free space around the worshipper. In older churches abroad any seating (benches or stalls) was located around the church walls leaving the center of the church free for worshippers. In churches with Western-style pews worshippers often move out into the aisles to make prostrations.

THE GREAT FAST
During the Church’ fasts we have ample opportunities to glorify God in the body through more frequent church services and through fasting. Eastern Christian fasting incorporates two ways of using our bodies in worship. In ascetic or total fasting we do not eat or drink anything. Period. This kind of fasting is in the spirit of Deutronomy 8:3, quoted by Christ to the tempter, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Traditionally people fast this way before receiving Holy Communion. Clergy who will serve the Liturgy – and in some Churches whoever will receive the Eucharist – are expected to fast from sexual activity as well. It is also customary to fast totally for a certain period on all fast days. Thus many fast this way until noon during these seasons.

The second type of fasting, also called abstinence, is fasting from certain foods (typically meat or dairy products). In many Eastern Churches people fast totally until noon and then, when they do eat, they abstain from meat and dairy. Since fish is considered “meat without feet” it is not generally consumed on the stricter fast days.

In this kind of fasting we glorify God in the body by limiting ourselves to what has been called the “food of paradise.” In the Genesis story of creation humans were created to be vegetarians. God is depicted as telling Adam and Eve: “I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food” (Gen 1:29). It was only after the flood that God told Noah, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Gen 9:3). By restricting ourselves to the food of paradise we are saying that we value above all things the communion with God that our first parents had.

OUR NATURE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED in Christ… our nature is being transformed in Christ… our nature will be transformed n Christ. At first glance this may seem like a grammar exercise about verbs. In fact it is a summary of theology: exploring the magnitude of the mystery which is Christ is us.

CHRIST’S COMING HAS TRANSFORMED US

The focus of our Christmas celebration is most often on the Gospel narratives of Matthew and Luke. They speak of the trip to Bethlehem, the angels and shepherds, the magi and the star. But from the earliest days of the Church believers have seen the birth of Christ containing, as it were, the whole life and death of Christ as a seed. His acceptance of our human nature necessarily includes His acceptance of the cross and death, and His renewal of mankind by His resurrection. In the same way our decision to have children must include the decision to accept the Terrible Twos, the Traumatic Teens, and all that follows.

For many religious people, when something holy comes into contact with something profane the holy thing becomes defiled. This principle is found in Judaism and Islam and accounts for the ritual washings and similar practices in these religions. The message of the Gospel, however, is that when the Holy One, the Son of God, comes into contact with something profane it is the profane thing which is changed. It is sanctified by contact with the holy. God is not defiled by His fallen creation; His creation is transformed when He enters into it in Christ. As described by St Gregory of Nyssa, “The Word in taking flesh was mingled with humanity, and took our nature within Himself, so that the human should be deified by this mingling with God: the stuff of our nature was entirely sanctified by Christ, the first-fruits of creation” (Against Appolonarius, 2).

By taking on our humanity the Word of God assumes all that we are, except sin, so that we can become by grace what He is by nature, children of the Father. Our nature is transfigured in Him. It is divinized or deified. As St Gregory the Theologian boldly expressed it, “He took our flesh and our flesh became God, since it is united with God and forms a single entity with Him” (Third Theological Oration).

Our society, and contemporary culture in general, is committed to the value and freedom of the individual. We recognize that each person has worth in himself or herself and this is good. But a stress on individualism inevitably leads to the separation of peoples from one another. At worst, people are alienated from society, from God, from one another. At the least, we find it hard to see the communal dimension to the incarnation: that the entire human race is irrevocably changed because the Son of God has come into it.

CHRIST’S PRESENCE TRANSFORMS US

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). These final words of Christ to His disciples before His ascension affirm His continuing presence with us. His physical presence was limited in time; His spiritual presence will last as long as time itself will last.

The focus on Christ’s spiritual presence is His Body, the Church. It is the mystery or sacrament of the risen Christ, which – like all sacraments – reveals His presence behind a veil. The Church is the world being transformed in Christ; at the same time it is Christ transforming the world.

The faithful, insofar as they are living a life of repentance, seeking to model their lives on Christ’s, are the world being transformed. The faithful, insofar as they celebrate Christ’s presence in the Scriptures, in baptism, the Eucharist and the other mysteries – including the mystery of love for others – are Christ transforming the world. The saints are those who witness by their lives that we can be transformed and transform others in Him.

Christ’s presence in the Scriptures was at first practically limited to its public reading in the assembly. People would listen carefully so as to memorize what they heard. Only the wealthy could afford hand-copied Scriptures for their personal use. In addition Books of Scripture, particularly the Gospels, would be richly adorned, carried in procession and offered for veneration, reminding believers that Christ was truly in them. Since the invention of printing the Scriptures have become increasingly available; as a result we may not be as quick to recognize the divine presence in a paperback Bible as in the Gospel on the holy table.

What enables us to experience the presence of Christ when we read the Scriptures – or, for that matter, when we assist at the Liturgy or other mysteries? St Isaac the Syrian offers the following advice: “Never approach the words of the mysteries that are in the Scriptures without praying and asking for God’s help. Say, ‘Lord, grant me to feel the power that is in them.’ Reckon prayer to be the key that opens the true meaning of the Scriptures” (Ascetical Treatises, 73).

Even more hidden to us is the presence of Christ in others. This presence calls silently for us to acknowledge Him, a call that we often are too deaf to hear. Some, like Mother Teresa and others like her, can hear that call and they become the light and salt of the Gospel sayings. The presence of these saints with their acute hearing of Christ’s voice is one of the signs that Christ is transforming the world even now.

CHRIST’S RETURN WILL TRANSFORM US

“Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). St Paul expresses here his hope in the final transformation of “all who have loved His appearing.”

Like St. Paul we await our ultimate transformation at Christ’s return. As the Church celebrates Christ’s appearing in the flesh (the Nativity) and His appearing in power at the Jordan (the Theophany), we are reminded that Christ’s first coming would find its ultimate fulfillment only in His second coming.

From the Catecheses of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“In His first coming He was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. In His second coming He is clothed with light as with a garment.

In His first coming He bore the cross, despising its shame; He will come a second time in glory accompanied by the hosts of angels.

It is not enough for us, then, to be content with His first coming; we must wait in hope of His second coming. What we said at His first coming, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,’ we shall repeat at His last coming…

MAN: THE LIVING IKON
When Russian Ambassador Gromyko first met with U.S. Secretary of State Schultz , what do you think they shared? Snapshots. Pictures of their grandchildren!

GOD’S PHOTO ALBUM
We all like sitting around and looking through old family albums, discovering our roots. It helps us establish our identity. It’s the same when we look at Christ, the Son of God, and realize that we are His brothers and sisters.
We find our identity and fulfillment in the family of God. If we don’t take a good look at God our Father and Jesus our Brother, will we really know who we are? Will we know what it means to be created in His likeness?

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the Image of God, the divine ikon . Did you know that you are to be a living ikon? Just what is an ikon and should Christians
have them? In this article we hope to touch on these questions and the importance of becoming images of Christ.

MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
We all see ourselves in those we love; of course, more so physically in relatives. This is even true of God. “God looked at everything He had made, and He found it very good” (Genesis 1:31). But most pleasing to God of all His artistic masterpieces is mankind. That means you! Do you know why? Because: “God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

It’s as if we’re God in miniature! Now, of course, we aren’t the same as He is, but we are made in His likeness: “For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of His own nature he made him.” (Wisdom 2:23)

So we’re all just ‘naturals’ when it comes to being Godlike, even if that ‘talent’ seems buried. God can’t help but love us; we’re His kids. He looks at us and sees Himself. We make His heart skip a beat. He’s proud of us, and He just loves showing us off to the rest of His creation, especially the angels. But they can’t quite figure it all out: why He keeps on loving us; why He puts up with a bunch of rebellious kids. Sometimes I wonder too why He puts up with me. But He does. Not only that; He helps me change and become more like Him.

BECOMING IMAGES OF CHRIST
H ow? Well, first of all He sent His Son, the one He joyously thundered about from heaven: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on Him” (Matthew 3: 17). You see, He just can’t help Himself. He sent His Son to be an example for us. “This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way He took” (1 Peter 2:21).

To be a Christian, then, is to follow in Christ’s footsteps. The word for ‘example’ in the text from Peter is hypogrammatos in the Greek. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? But it’s a very simple word. Do you remember your kindergarten blackboard? On the top of it was the alphabet printed in clean cut, white lettering, and you had to trace underneath the same letters, stroke for stroke. Well, that’s exactly what a hypogrammatos is – a chalkboard with the alphabet on top for kids to practice
how to write.

The Father wants us to be schooled in the wisdom of His Son. He asks us to try and try again until we can trace His Son’s footsteps, walk in His shoes.

But tracing the pattern of His life, becoming like Jesus, isn’t something we do on our own. No, He holds our hand and guides us as we try to copy Him: “Any who did accept Him He empowered to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

This power comes from the Spirit. “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is. there is freedom. All of us, gazing on the Lord’s glory with unveiled faces, are being transformed from glory to glory into His very image by the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). It is by spiritually contemplating the Lord that we are made like Him. The word translated by ‘gazing’ actually means to look into a mirror. Now this mirror, like the image, is Christ, the Wisdom of God.

The author of Hebrews picks up on this when he says, “This Son is the reflection of the Father’s glory, the exact representation of the Father’s being, and He sustains all things by His powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3). We get our English word ‘character’ from the Greek word used in this passage, which means ‘exact representation’. Have you ever played in candle wax, dipping your fingers in it to make a mold? When you peel the wax away, an impression of your fingerprint remains in it.

This is what the Greek word ‘character’ means The Jerusalem Bible translates it as “perfect copy”.

When life gets us hot under the collar, that’s usually when the Lord tries to impress His image on our lives. He has His finger on us. He’s giving us ‘character’. He’s making us into a ‘perfect copy’ of His Son. “We know that by turning everything to their good God cooperates with all those who love Him, with all those that He has called according to His purpose. They are the ones He chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of His Son, so that His Son might be the eldest of many brothers” (Romans 8:28-29).

SHARING IN THE DIVINE NATURE
This process is what the early Church called theosis or deification: becoming like God.The apostle Peter teaches, “That divine power of His has freely bestowed on us everything necessary for a life of genuine piety, through knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and power. By virtue of of them He has bestowed on us the great and precious things He promised, so that through these you who have fled a world corrupted by lust might become sharers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4)

This is the good news of the Incarnation! The divine nature took on human nature, in order that we might participate in the divine life.

It is because of the mysteries of the Incarnation and Resurrection that we are sure that we too can be transfigured. When God became man, taking on flesh, He sanctified created matter. Matter, after all, is not evil. In fact, when God had finished creating everything, Hesaid, “It is very good”.

Creation is God’s masterpiece of love. “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning He had meant us to live it” (Ephesians 2:10). Several times Paul tells us that Christ is the image of God. The word ‘image’ in Greek is ikon. From apostolic times Christians have made images, ikons of Christ. Ikons are plaques or sacred objects bearing paintings of Christ, the Mother of God, angels or saints. They represent the real essence of a person. Jesus Christ is literally the Ikon of God, the exact physical representation of the invisible God. We are called to be living ikons of Christ. To see Jesus is to see the Father. To see us, we hope, is to see Christ.

IKONS, INSTRUMENTS OF GRACE
P rayer and faith in God’s grace is what allows Christ to dwell more fully in us. Holy images (ikons) can help us in our becomingrepresentations of the divine life. Ikons aren’t supposed to be portraits of saints, but something like caricatures, except that they portray the good points, not the bad. They are symbolic depictions of their holiness and way of life. By lookingat an ikon and meditating on the life of the person itrepresents, we can be inspired to be transformed into the image of Christ.

Saints, recognized by the Church, are people who have had their lives changed by Christ. They have been born again into the heavenly family, transformed into the image of Christ. We are all called to be saints, holy ikons of Christ.
Ikons, like other holy objects, are instruments of grace and healing, God’s grace works through the symbols and the object itself.

Ikons of saints are somewhat like relics, The grace of God in the saint is in the ikon. Many people have been healed by touching ikons in prayerful faith. It is the Holy Spirit who has sanctified and empowered the holy objects. He heals through the physical dimension as well as the nonmaterial, because in God’s becoming man the created order has been redeemed and made holy.

HONORING THE SAINTS
Now that doesn’t mean we worship the ikonor the saint. Worship and adoration are reserved for God alone. But we should honor and pay respect to the saints. Who hasn’t given a standing ovation to some prominent person? How much more so we should honor and pay recognition to those outstanding people of faith who have run the race well. St. Paul said, “Take me for your model, as I take Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:1). If we follow Christ, how can we not help but end up walking
with and following others who have already followed Christ? Paul again says, “My brothers. be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us” (Philippians 3:17).

ARE IKONS IDOLS?
Some might object, though, that meditating on or praying in front of an ikon is idolatry. This objection has been raised before. Over three hundred bishops gathered together in 787 at what is now known as the Second Council of Nicaea. They discussed the matter, and this is what they concluded: it is holy and good to pay honor and reverence before an ikon of either Christ, the Mother of God, angels or saints; but to God alone belongs worship and adoration.

Here are some of their reasons. Scripture says, “You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth” (Exodus 20:4). But five chapters later God says, “For the two ends of this throne of mercy you are to make two golden cherubs; you are to make them of beaten gold” (Exodus 25:19). God also commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent in the image of the biting snakes. What! Has God contradicted Himself? Of course not! The difference is the next verse after the command not to make images: “… you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God …” (Exodus 20:5). Images and works of art aren’t evil; worshiping them is. If God truly became man, we can surely paint pictures of Him.

WE ARE LIVING IKONS
Our lives will be sanctified and transformed the more we contemplate Jesus, the Ikon of God in the flesh. Prayerfully meditating on the lives of the saints before their ikons will likewise inspire us to also become living images of the Divine Life, for the transforming power of God rests upon the ikon. This is our calling: to share the image of the God-Man (cf. Romans 8:29).

Let us, therefore, revere one another and see the image of God in our fellow human being. And if we think it is hard to find it in some, let us help them discover it. Imagine it! We can see God every day if we choose to. Why don’t you show someone a token of appreciation for being a sign of God’s love in your life?

And the next time you look in a mirror, take a good look and realize you are the image of God being changed from glory into exceeding glory!

MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD believe in the one God. But so many of them find it impossible to imagine that God has become man in Jesus Christ. The very idea that God could come to earth and suffer all that we suffer in life is incomprehensible to them.

People who balk at the idea of the incarnation often believe in something which may seem more incredible yet. They embrace the teaching that “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

How could human beings like us be in God’s image? We know ourselves and our weaknesses. Surely the author of Genesis knew human nature also. How could this author make such a claim? And how could the Spirit of God, who inspires the Scriptures, speak to us through these words?

Yet we know that all creation reflects something of God who is the Source of its being. It is God’s presence which upholds everything that is, so that in some way everything mirrors its Creator. The great forces of nature – the galaxies and planets, the mountains and oceans – suggest to many the power and majesty of God, “charged with the grandeur of God” in the words of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Others find the wisdom of God evident in the precise arrangement of even the tiniest organism or of the ecosystem. From ancient Greeks to 21st century scientists people have marveled at the “golden ratio” (1.618 or φ), which reflects an order underlying things as diverse as atoms, brainwaves, the graphic arts and music. People of all ages have seen this order as pointing to God who has brought together everything in an otherwise unrivalled precision. Yet in mankind there is something which mirrors God in a way that distinguishes us from the rest of creation.

While the rest of creation reflects God’s wisdom and power, mankind reflects God at the heart of His very being. God is love, we read in the New Testament, and we are the creature that can love and so reflect the love of God. To be human, then, is to be a lover in the image of the One who is love itself.

Seeing God as the Holy Trinity, Christians believe that the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is at the core of God’s very being. God is a communion of love and this communion is not closed in upon itself but is extended to embrace all creation. In a similar way relationship is at the heart of our being. We are made for communion with one another and most importantly for communion with our Creator, God. Not only are human beings created by God, but we are created in God and for Him. In the broadest sense we are made for worship.

“LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS.” (GENESIS 1:26)

These words introduce the story of our creation in the book of Genesis. Many Church Fathers, like St. Irenaeus, saw in them a distinction between what we already are and what we have the chance to become. From our creation in God’s image we have the innate ability to love. We can know what is good and choose to embrace it. As God’s love is extended freely to His creation, mankind in His image is given the freedom to extend our love or to withhold it.

To be created after God’s likeness means something more. It means that we were created with the fullest possibility of relating to God and to one another already in view. The fully developed human being would be one fully resembling the One who made us.

At mankind’s creation, St Irenaeus wrote, man was a child. Just as infants are born with the potential to develop into adults, mankind was created as a spiritual infant. That he was to develop was clear; the certainty that he would mature fully was not.

The book of Genesis teaches that the relationship of men and women with their Creator was quickly ruptured. Adam and Eve are tempted to become “like God” on their own, despite the warning that they “would surely die” if they did not follow the directions of their Maker. Striking out on their own, they showed a mistrust of God which altered their relationship forever. The image of God in humanity would remain; the likeness was so scarred that it became impossible for men and women to fulfill their potential as God intended. The only One who could perfectly realize human nature was the eternal image of the Father, His only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible… All things were created through him and for Him. … For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Colossians 1:15-19).

And so the Word of God, the icon of the Father, would become human to completely fulfill human nature in Himself. As a Sufi poet once wrote, “When God wanted to see His face He sent Jesus to the world.” And because He had become one with us, the Son of God could restore the likeness of God in us as well. Created in God’s image, we could re-embark on the journey of fellowship with God in Christ, our “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Only the Lord Jesus truly reflects for us the love of God. But those who have put on Christ in baptism and who sustain their union with Him will be transformed into “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), sharers in His likeness. This transformation, which the Fathers called theosis (deification), is the goal of our life as Christians; but it is also the journey to that goal. What begins here is meant to be completed in the age to come.

Theosis as a process begins with baptism. We begin allowing the gift of our baptism to impact our life when we make a godly life the main goal of our existence. We try to keep the commandments, to observe the Lord’s precepts on prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and to live the life of the Church. Theosis will grow in us as we become more aware of God’s presence within us and in our life at every moment: an awareness cultivated perhaps by the Jesus Prayer. We discover the meaning of St Gregory of Sinai’s words: “Become what you are. Find Him who is already yours. Listen to Him who never ceases speaking to you. Own Him who already owns you.”

As we begin entrusting our entire life to Christ God, we may understand Christ’s words, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48) in terms of what we do: “If I am accomplishing all this, I am becoming perfect in God’s sight.” A deeper sign that we are growing in the journey of theosis is when we seek to become more like Jesus the Servant. As St Paul urged, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who – though he was in the form of God – did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness and found in human appearance, He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

As Christ’s attitudes of humility, obedience and mutual service become more ingrained in us, we reflect ever more the life of God. Our love for others and for all creation grows as we reflect the mind of Christ in us. We become what we are: people who live by God’s divine life in us and partake in His divine nature.